Frank Seravalli

Daily News Staff Writer

P.K. Subban seemed to be at the center of every battle last night in the Flyers’ 3-0 shutout loss at the Bell Centre.

Subban, 21 and the Canadiens’ fan-favorite rookie defenseman, didn’t shy away from running his mouth during the chippy third period that saw three players leave the game with 10-minute misconducts.

He was involved in nearly every trash-talking session before being thrown to the ice by the normally mild-mannered Sean O’Donnell in the third period. O'Donnell was tossed after the altercation - and Subban never dropped the gloves.

Flyers captain Mike Richards sounded off on Subban after the game.

In hockey, if you're going to throw verbal 'bows, you better be willing to thrown down.

“He's come in the league and hasn't earned respect,” Richards said, according to audio played on the Team 990 in Montreal this morning, as transcribed by BroadStreetHockey.com. “It's just frustrating to see a young guy like that come in here and so much as think that he's better than a lot of people.

“You have to earn respect in this league. It takes a lot. You can't just come in here as a rookie and play like that. It's not the way to get respect from other players around the league and hopefully someone on their team addresses it, because I'm not saying I'm going to do it but something might happen to him if he continues to be that cocky.”

And Subban didn’t shy away from comment after Canadiens practice today in Montreal, once he heard Richards’ post-game comments. He seemed to be perplexed as to Richards’ issue.

“I’m not the only person who’s confident when I play the game,” Subban told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun. “Maybe the fact that I’m a young guy coming in, that maybe people don’t take too well to that. As long as my teammates and the coaching staff are happy with what I’m doing, I’m going to continue to do that.”

The last time Richards called out someone in the media, Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke, the two fought just 6 seconds into their next game. Previously, Florida’s David Booth trashed Richards in the media for his vicious hit that sent Booth to the hospital and cost him most of last season. Richards and Booth also squared off in Booth’s next contest against the Flyers to settle that score.

By the way, in case you were wondering, P.K. stands for Parnell Karl.

Meanwhile, The Score in Canada picked up on why Scott Hartnell was so incensed in the third period after a scrum.

Hartnell was apparently choked, on the ice, while wrestling with Maxim Lapierre. Video and audio of the incident are below.

With the Flyers and Canadiens facing off again on Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center in a battle between the two division leaders, it’s safe to say we won’t have to wait long until Richards or Subban makes the next move.